Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) such as carbonated sodas are associated with an elevated risk of multiple chronic diseases. An SSB workplace sales ban has been introduced by several U.S. employers to discourage employees from consuming SSBs. Whether an SSB workplace sales ban will ultimately be cost-effective for employers and society, and how cost-effectiveness is affected by longer-term impact scenarios, are not known. We constructed and applied a microsimulation model of national employee populations, including rates of chronic disease-related costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) from employer and healthcare system perspectives.
Sanjay Basu1,2,3*, Laurie Jacobs4, Elissa Epel4, Dean Schillinger5, Laura Schmidt4
1 Research and Analytics, Collective Health
2 Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School
3 School of Public Health, Imperial College London
4 Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, and Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco
5 Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California San Francisco and Center for Vulnerable Populations, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital